|
|  | Author: Parag Khanna
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.66
as of 3/17/2010 01:21 CDT details
You Save: $7.34 (46%)
New (36) Used (18) from $6.40
Seller: OB1S
Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 72316
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0812979842
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780812979848
ASIN: 0812979842
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Book direct from the publisher. Ships from New York within one week from order. Please allow up to 15 days for delivery. Returns accepted. Satisfaction guarantee.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 36-40 of 42
 What about India? March 6, 2008
Theseus Augustus (Chicago, IL USA)
45 out of 48 found this review helpful
This is the book I have been waiting years for - it is the clearest picture I have yet seen of the 21st century's nascent Great Game; the Game as played by three Great Powers with very different styles: the United States, the European Union, and China. Khanna has developed an original view of a tripolar world, and effectively balances the force of geopolitics with the complementary trend toward globalisation.
The book has several persistent and gnawing weaknesses. Khanna persistently focuses on traditional land power geopolitics, an easier thing to describe and a well trodden path in International Studies, but perhaps an increasingly less potent matrix with the emergence of new realms of competition in this century: low Earth orbit (mentioned briefly in one paragraph of the book); the emerging Internet culture and electronic world; enduring naval power and new oceanographic frontiers; the growing diasporas and transnational, nomadic elites who owe no geographical national allegiance. In particular, he who rules lower Earth orbit rules the planet, regardless of who predominates upon the "World-Island" of Eurasia.
The author, like many intelligent NRI Indians, seems disillusioned by the failure of Indian democracy to overcome poverty and wealth disparity on the subcontinent (at one point stating, "It could be argued that China is a freer country than democratic India", ignoring some obvious differences in number of political prisoners, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free access to the Internet . . . ). Though often pointing out the environmental and cultural devastation that Chinese dominance has visited on its satellite countries, Khanna as frequently stumbles in his lavish praise of the authoritarian Singapore model that China is now following, hinting that China will allow a free society once it has acquired enough wealth, and understates the potential power of chaotic, creative, "undisciplined" (read: free) India and "Bollystan" (Khanna's term) in this century.
Freedom of speech and protection of a counterculture are more than just abstract features of a Western liberal morality. Freedom of speech and protection of "deviants" comprise essential economic infrastructure in the twenty-first century. As we move into an Information Age, societies that offer strong protection of freedom of speech and individual expression will trump those Confucian societies that emphasize obedience and silent submission to authority. As unlikely a winner as oft-benighted India may seem to be, I would still put good money on India and the individualistic U.S., in collaboration with the European Union, as the future leaders of the non-local sphere of Information and Cyberspace, leaving the Confucian societies not yet visited by glasnost far behind. Freedom of information should be treated by Khanna as one of the most important traits of an economic superpower, far more important than good roads, canals, and oil rigs. Confucianism, as it exists today, is a mimicry engine producing only commodities; free societies such as India have the potential to become creativity engines, producing entirely new economic niches.
Unless we are driven into a new Dark Age by war or resource disasters, the relentless Information Age will reward societies with strong creative classes (Richard Florida's term); reward societies with a protected counterculture and bohemia; and will punish societies ruled by conformity and fear of "deviance"; will punish societies without their equivalent of Mad Magazine; will punish societies that imprison dissidents. Until Chinese glasnost emerges, the United States, Europe and India will rule cyberspace, and hence the future.
India will not be destroyed by wealth disparities. The caste system will provide structural stability for some time to come, giving India a prolonged safety interval in which to grow a strong middle class. India is a nation of jatis, but a nation nonetheless. Its diversity and syncretic ability to adapt and absorb culture is a strength that the Chinese lack.
One final point before I go. Khanna's occasionally obsequious praise of Singapore-style authoritarianism is almost matched by the fault of his dismissive critique of United States foreign policy. As another reviewer has stated, the only reason the European Union can focus on building networks and economic bridges is that the United States is providing all the muscle. Without U.S. military presence, the EU would find itself much constrained and forced to be the "bad cop" more often. This is in no way an endorsement of what I agree is largely clumsy and inappropriate U.S. policy, but how the U.S. got to this point is much the result of an inadequate European security policy.
The book, on balance, is a good start.
Must read by everyone! March 6, 2008
Tugba Kalafatoglu
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
"The Second World" is a great book that the author "Parag Khanna" does an awesome job to describe the world. When you read the chapters,you feel like you are there with his smooth writing, anyone can read from all ages and can get the idea. I just congrat to the author to give us a book like this. I am sure that many people who reads the book around the world would agree with me!
The new Mr. X? March 5, 2008
Jeremy S. Goldberg (New York, NY United States)
After reading The Second World, it's hard not to see that Khanna is the new "Mr. X," the great Cold War diplomat/historian George Kennan who articulated the strategy of "containment" towards the Soviet Union in an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs in 1947. It's hard to imagine the current crop of usual suspects in the foreign policy world - Friedman, Huntington, Fukuyama, Kagan, Zakaria, Mandelbaum, etc. - driving bumpily around a hundred countries to prove their armchair theories. Khanna's advantages are obviously his multi-cultural upbringing and his youth. He cleverly decides not to engage in their stale debates about the "clash of civilizations," but rather invokes the far greater historical intellects of Arnold Toynbee and Oswald Spengler, using their great debate to frame his narrative. Their grasp of world history - and Khanna's - proves to be far superior to the mainstream foreign policy pundits of today. It's a mystery why it's taken over a decade for someone to come along and debunk both the post-Cold War triumphalists and the hyper-alarmist neo-conservatives at the same time, but at least it's finally happened. A must read to understand the 21st century, period.
Second World is first rate original thinking March 4, 2008
ON
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
In a dynamic world, this book offers a new theory or framework for understanding the complexities of the 21st century. Khanna does an excellent job constructing a consistent framework across multiple cultures, geographies and cultures. I have read many books in the international field and it is hard to find unique ideas - The Second World is full of them. Khanna brings geography to life in this book without being too deterministic, for in fact this book is as much about globalization (which implies the "death of distance") as it is about places and spaces. The book also has a very modern spirit, lucidly demonstrating how economic power is very often more important than military power, and that fact alone implies a rebalancing of world power. Finally, the book's bracing conclusion puts forward devastating evidence that far from remaining master of the world, the U.S. may need a "Marshall Plan" just to stay where it is. Combined with the elegant writing and on-the-ground narrative feel, this book far surpasses the competition.
Future of the American Empire March 4, 2008
Mark Twain (New York, New York, USA)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the future of the world, and more specifically the future of the United States of America. The author travelled through more then 40 countries and it shows: in every chapter there is both analysis and detailed information about each country and region. It's a fascinating view of the globe as it is today, with a conclusion that is essential for anyone trying to understand the trends shaping our world.
The book is not necessarily about the "decline" of American power, but rather a more nuanced view of the rise of the EU and China and the concurrent emergence of "the second world", all of which makes for a far more complex world that all nations and globalized citizens will have to navigate. This book is the roadmap for understanding the next few decades, and it also happens to be a fun and fascinating read. Highly recommended.
Showing reviews 36-40 of 42
|
|
|
Return to Math.com | |
